


Fools in Love

by opal3scence



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Canon Compliant, F/F, Ficlet, Kissing, Regency, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 08:03:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7566454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opal3scence/pseuds/opal3scence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"She had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous."<i></i></i><br/> Or, what happened when Clara met Jane Austen.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Fools in Love

The weeks had glided by lazily, and Clara and Jane had spent their days together laughing, strolling about Steventon and engaging in heated discussions, most of which would have outraged their contemporaries. Clara knew more about Jane than Jane knew about herself, and she found her love and admiration for this beautiful, wicked, clever, funny woman growing stronger with every word that escaped her lips. These were their halcyon days, and for the longest time it seemed like they would never end.

 

But they had to.

 

Clara had a home, a life, a timeline she had to return to. She’d begged and pleaded with the Doctor, _just a few more days_ , but he’d been firm. The two of them needed to return to the 21st century before they did something to completely alter the course of space and time. The Doctor took pity on her, really, but enough was enough. The girl idolised Jane, truly loved her, but they couldn’t keep going on like this.

 

When Clara told her, Jane had cried; deep, angry sobs that ripped her body apart to expose her soul. It hurt Clara unlike anything ever had before, yet she knew she had to be a big girl and stand up to her feelings.

 

It had come as a shock when Jane told Clara she loved her.

 

Her lip shook, her eyes widened, her shoulders tensed and her stomach sank. _Jane loved her_. The way she had said it, with such burning, heart-wrenching honesty had made it clear that this was no platonic matter. The days the women had spent together, days that smelled like grass and parchment, days that sounded like birdsong and laughter came flooding back to Clara, who was beginning to tear up herself, and she suddenly realised that she loved Jane too. She loved her as a as a guardian, as a sister, as a writer, as a counsellor, as a friend…as something more than a friend.

 

Before she could put this into words, she felt hands on her cheeks and lips on her own. Clara melted into the kiss, feeling the tears streaming down Jane’s face wiping them away with a trembling thumb. A hand drifted to the small of Clara’s back, the other reaching up to run through her hair, and stayed that way for what felt like forever. When they broke apart, at long, long last, Clara had forgotten the time, where they were, who she was — only that she had just _kissed Jane Austen_ and that she’d loved every second of it. Clara stared into her eyes, the bright. bright eyes that seemed to contain the sea and the sky and everything good in the world.

 

“Listen,” she whispered, even though she knew nobody else was in the room. “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but you’re going to be brilliant. I can just tell. People all over the world are going to be reading your work, and they’re going to love it. You’re going to go down in history, Jane, just mark my words.”

 

She knew Jane likely didn’t understand what she meant, but the bittersweet smile on her face told Clara more than she needed to hear. The two women held each other tightly, like they were clinging for dear life, desperate to take in as much of each other as possible before they went their separate ways. Like two pieces of glass melded together, they stayed locked together until Clara heard that familiar wheezing sound from outside. For the first time in her life, she had been dreading this sound…

 

Clara took another deep, shuddering breath, trying to stop herself from crying any more, and turned away. She couldn’t look at Jane, she had to forget about her. Silence fell as she exited the drawing room through the huge oak doors, and walked down the hallway in a somewhat robotic fashion. Just before she pushed open the front door to meet the Doctor, however, she looked behind her, to see Jane standing there with her eyes swimming in tears. 

 

“Jane,” Clara said in a slightly choked voice. “ _First Impressions_. You’re writing it right now? You’ll want to make some changes to it, and believe me, I mean that in the most positive way imaginable. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.”

 

Neither of them said anything for a while. Then —

 

"Goodbye, Clara."

 

"Goobye, Jane."

 

Jane blinked away the tears clouding her vision, but before she knew it, Clara was gone.

* * *

 

That night, the manuscript was placed on the writing desk alongside the inkwell and quill. Jane, face still streaked with ghosts of her tears, brought her mind back to Clara. Clara, with her outrageous ideas, ahead of her time, who said things that made her blush, who was so fiercely plucky, witty and independent that it made her feel pathetic in comparison. _Her Clara_ , who she would never see again. Jane picked up the quill, and began to write.

 

_“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife…”_


End file.
